STANDARDS OF DRESS IN GENERAL

    It is equally incorrect to state that there are no absolute standards in the matter of dress, as to say there are no relative variations permitted. Clothing is worn for reasons of protection from the weather, decency, to show one's position or function in society, and to foster beauty for a lawful motive. Men and women are equally bound by the virtue of modesty, but the application is different as the reactions of either sex are different. The simple rule is that whatever is worn according to the above reasons, within the norms of the best element of one's culture, is acceptable for a Catholic. However, whatever tends to the reversal of roles or confusion of position in society is unnatural and thus unacceptable for a Christian.

    The Vatican in 1928 began a campaign to combat immodesty of dress, which was advancing at an alarming rate before the Great Depression. In 1930 an even more strong and detailed letter went from Rome at the insistence of Pope Pius XI to remind people of the words of St.Paul: "Women...adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety." The letter declared that these fashions undermine the dignity of women, so they become the object of lust for men, leading to both temporal and eternal ruin. Even worse, by immodest fashions they drag others down with them in their fall.

    The detailed instruction began by telling the parish priests to exhort, insist, argue and command that feminine garb be modest and womanly and a defence to virtue. They must warn parents to cause their daughters to cease wearing indecorous dress.

    Parents were urged to encourage from a young age a love for the virtues of modesty and chastity, also by their good example. They shall keep their daughters away from public gymnastic games, or if compelled to go, they should be modestly dressed.

    Ultimately the instruction warns that all maidens and women dressed immodestly are to be debarred from Holy Communion and from acting as sponsors at the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. If the offence be extreme, they may be forbidden to enter the church.

    To these instructions we must now add that men seduced by the fashion designers are becoming more guilty of the same offences, by wearing clothes that are the occasion of sin for some women. Also some men today are wearing unnatural and thus unacceptable styles that are suitable for women, such as earrings or pigtails of long hair. There has been a certain silence on the part of the clergy about these clear Vatican instructions, while families breakdown from the suspicions and jealousies, not to mention actual sins of lust caused by immodest fashions. Such a silence on the part of the mainstream clergy, is no reason why we should consider the Society of St.Pius X exempt from speaking out on this issue, or making standards in accord with the traditional norms given below. These norms may not always be applicable in every situation, but are certainly the minimum standards for attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

    It will take much moral courage to apply these norms, especially as they should apply even within the home. Once the woman stops dressing as a lady, she stops thinking and acting as a lady, and begins to wonder why she is not treated with respect. The sacred duty of the female gender is to elevate the men by Mary-like behaviour. This has been the true liberation for women.

THUS SAITH THE LORD:

ie. Do not go with the flow.

Saint Theresa of Avila:

Blessed Padre Pio "on Women's Dress"
from Prophet of the People, by Dorothy M. Gaudiose, pp. 191-2

Women received especially rough treatment from Padre Pio because of current fashions. He had always been a merciless enemy of feminine vanity. "Vanity," he said, "is the son of pride, and is even more malignant than its mother. Have you ever seen a field of ripe corn? Some ears are tall; others are bent to the ground. Try taking the tallest, the proudest ones, and you will see that they are empty; but it you take the smallest, the humblest ones, they are laden with seeds. From this you can see that vanity is empty."

Padre Pio wouldn't tolerate low-necked dresses or short, tight skirts, and he forbade his spiritual daughters to wear transparent stockings. Each year his severity increased. He stubbornly dismissed them from his confessional, even before they set foot inside, if he judged them to be improperly dressed. On some mornings he drove away one after another, until he ended up hearing very few confessions.

His brothers observed these drastic purges with a certain uneasiness and decided to fasten a sign on the church door: "By Padre Pio's explicit wish, women must enter his confessional wearing skirts at least eight inches below the knees. It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them for the confessional."

The last warning was not without effect. There was a furtive exchange of skirts, blouses, and raincoats, that took place at the last moment in the half-lit church to remedy any failings.

The women made their adjustments, but perhaps not exactly enough. Padre Pio continued to send some away before giving them a chance to confess. He would glower at them, and grumble, "Go and get dressed." And sometimes he added, "Clowns!" He spared no one... persons he saw for the first time, or his long-time spiritual daughters. Often the skirts were decidedly many inches below the knees, but not sufficiently long for his moral severity.

As the years began to weigh on Padre Pio, his daily hours in the confessional were limited to four, equally divided between men and women. In addition to being dressed properly, they had to know the Italian language, even though he could somehow understand people speaking another language. But he knew Italian, Latin, and very little French, consistently refusing to hear confessions except in Italian or Latin.

Sometimes when Padre Pio refused to absolve his penitents and closed the small confessional door in their faces, the people would reproach him asking why he acted this way. "Don't you know," he asked, "what pain it costs me to shut the door on anyone? The Lord has forced me to do so. I do not call anyone, nor do I refuse anyone either. There is Someone else Who calls and refuses them. I am His useless tool."

Even the men had rules to follow. They were not permitted to enter the church with three-quarter length sleeves. Boys as well as men had to wear long trousers at church, if they didn't want to be shown out of the church, that is. But women in short skirts were his prime targets. Padre Pio's citadel was perhaps the only place in the world where the fashions of the 1930s still ruled in the 1960s

(Do you recall what Our Lady of Fatima said about "certain fashions"?)